Sam & Lissa's Blog!

About 91 year old Barbara Beskind who believe it or not is a tech designer for IDEO, a

company in Palo Alto. Yes she is 91. She goes to work every Thursday. Isn't that crazy?

I said this morning that I wished my Dad were alive so I could have introduced them. He died when he was 91...and until just before his death he was also still going strong.

Quite the story about Barbara. The Today show did an entire feature on her. She always wanted to be an inventor but knew the job required an engineering degree and her guidance counselor in high school told her women weren't being accepted by engineering schools so she joined the ARMY and became an occupational therapist instead.

2 years ago she saw a story on IDEO...and applied for a job. She said it took her two months to write her resume. It started at 9 pages but she did it, wrote a cover letter and mailed it!!!

She got the job...the staff loves her...and she works on projects that relate to aging.

Haven't we all had a child begging us to get a pet...especially a dog?.

Goldfish never seem to be enough. So if you've got a child right now begging

for a dog..and you don't want to get one..stop reading. Just move on.

Because all this next paragraph will do is make you go get a pet..a dog or a cat.

And in my case I have both...one dog..2 cats. Christina also has a horse and we did have an annoying talking bird for many years. Oh, and we had an aquarium too. Now that was a disaster.

I digress. Getting back to pets. I saw today there are 3 ways owning a pet is good for you.

1. You are less likely to feel lonely. True enough. I was alone for many years. Pets are perfect company.

2. Kids who grow up with pets don't have as many allergies. Unless you're my son in law!! But research shows kids are 20% less likely to suffer from wheezing if there's a dog in the house, and 15% less likely to develop eczema.

3. They're good for your heart. And now just because you tend to get more exercise if you own a dog. Even cat owners were 40% less likely to die of a heart attack .